Minnesota CEOs chose deescalation over outrage. Did it work?

It was eight weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had begun searching the streets of Minneapolis for immigrants, triggering protests and clashes, when the state’s business community finally issued a statement: On Jan. 25 the CEOs of 60 eminent companies via the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce called for “an immediate deescalation of tensions.” By then the ICE agents had killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good, a mother of three, and—the day before the letter was released—a registered nurse named Alex Pretti.